Since Donald Trump moved back into the White House for his second term, nine people have died while in the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). On Wednesday, the agency’s acting director, Todd Lyons, testified while being grilled by Democrats over a massive increase in funding that the agency has requested. “We do conduct a thorough investigation on all of those,” Lyons said, adding, “ICE, as I’ve said, is dedicated to transparency.”
ICE Centers ‘Abysmal”
Lyons’ statement took place as Democrats on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Department of Homeland Security pressed Lyons about the current conditions at ICE detention centers. Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas has called the detention center conditions “abysmal” and “tantamount to human rights abuses. What we’ve seen under the Trump administration should send chills down the spine of every American,” Escobar shared during the hearing.
9 Immigrant Deaths
This year, the agency had only publicly disclosed information about seven deaths. The most recent death took place on April 8 and was the passing of Brayan Rayo-Garzon, whose death the agency reported as a suicide. Rayo-Garzon had a mental health evaluation scheduled, but it kept getting delayed. Officials say that there were several delays.
Democrats have accused the agency of being slow to report deaths. The worst year for deaths of people in ICE’s custody came under the Biden administration in 2024. According to ICE, there were 12 reported deaths at that time.
Escobar Grilled At Hearing
Escobar said during Wednesday’s hearing that ICE was slated to see a 365% increase in detention spending under the Trump administration’s push for a much larger budget that would increase Homeland Security spending to over $43 billion. Escobar argued during the hearing that the increase in spending on detention was not delivering proper results for the detainees in their care.
“The increase in costs to taxpayers obviously hasn’t translated into an increase in humane conditions, but I bet it has meant an increase in profits for these private companies,” she said. “That’s what American tax dollars have been funding.”
Lyons tried to counter Escobar by saying ICE would rather its facilities were maintained by local government jurisdictions. He added that sanctuary cities that do not openly cooperate with ICE force the agency to detain immigrants away from local communities and place them in facilities that are privately run.
52,000 Currently Detained
The Trump administration has made no secret that it wants to rapidly deport over 1 million immigrants. Currently, ICE reports that it has 52,000 people in detention, which is over 10,000 more than the agency budgeted for.
On Wednesday, Lyons testified that the agency’s detention capacity was capable of growing to 100,000 beds with the additional funding. ICE told Congress in March that it was $2 billion short of being able to maintain all of its operations through to the end of the fiscal year, which comes to an end in September; however, Lyons said on Wednesday that the agency was operating “within our means.”
